


Food Chain

by slotumn



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Almyra (Fire Emblem), Bullying, Character Study, Childhood Trauma, Dark Claude von Riegan, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Drabble Sequence, Dysfunctional Family, Family Angst, Family Drama, Fratricide, Gen, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Incest, Politics, Sort Of, Worldbuilding, i mean i guess hes sorta justified since all of his siblings are little bitches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27826540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slotumn/pseuds/slotumn
Summary: Khalid al-Azhdar, crown prince of Almyra, has six siblings.
Relationships: Claude von Riegan & Original Character(s), claude von riegan & his asshole siblings
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Food Chain

**Author's Note:**

> Suddenly felt like shoving my headcanons on Claude's siblings + some Almyran politics into something less than 1k words. 
> 
> Just think it would be very sexy of him to commit fratricide for both personal and political reasons, you know?

0\. Prince

Khalid's father has six wives. 

His mother, Tiana, was the last to be wed, but she is the queen. That makes him the crown prince, which means that he will be king one day, just like Father. 

But Father's other wives— and their families, the five grand clans— all want their children to be king, too. 

He asks if why they couldn't just share and be king together. Mother and Father shake their heads, saying it "doesn't work like that."

Later that day, someone poisons his food, again. He nearly dies, again.

Khalid does not like being the crown prince.

\---  
\---

2\. Underhanded

The Almyran monarch traditionally takes at least one consort from each of the kingdom's five grand clans, as a political balancing act. 

Even between them, though, there are differences in power; Mardikh has always been the largest, and Zimourv, the smallest.

Khalid's first lesson is that "small" doesn't mean "less dangerous."

"I'm simply not suited a position as grand as the throne," Shohreh always claims. "Leading House Zimourv will be enough for me."

Meanwhile, many of the assassins who try to to kill Khalid claim they can't remember who their employer was. 

Shohreh and House Zimourv's specialty is memory-altering magic. 

\---

3\. Psychopath

Everyone likes Rahim.

"What's wrong, Khalid? Are you scared?" 

He always walks and dresses like he's already been coronated, and flashes a white-toothed smile no matter who he talks to. Some of the more precocious girls already giggle and preen when he walks by. 

"Do you wanna run away? Do you wanna run away to Fódlan with your ma?" 

He charms the palace training instructor into letting him use a real blade for sparring, and when Khalid gets injured, he says it's an accident and pretends to apologize. 

"Are you gonna run, you fucking _coward_?"

Everyone likes Rahim, except Khalid.

\---

4\. Bystanders

Safa likes making battleship blueprints more than treaties. Rushan likes studying medicine more than diplomacy. 

They're lucky, because their mother's clans— Bahmut and Samaran— are in charge of the royal fleet and medical institute, respectively.

They don't want the crown and have no reason to want him dead, but when Khalid approaches Safa, he always says,

"Go away. It'll be bothersome if people see me with you."

and when he approaches Rushan, she always says,

"Sorry, I'm busy right now."

Khalid catches them kissing in the garden one day.

He promises to keep it a secret— for the time being.

\---

5\. Mediocre

Mozhdeh's mother is from House Kargdan, and loves the king with everything she has. 

Mozhdeh was born on the same day as him, but Father was with his mother instead of hers.

She's not savvy like Shohreh, charismatic like Rahim, or smart like Rushan and Safa. House Kargdan already has a designated heir, so she can't fall back there, either. 

"You fucking piece of shit _half-breed_ ," she growls, cutting his clothes off. "You and that fucking _whore_ mother of yours."

But she is very, very angry. 

"If only you didn't _exist_."

To her, Khalid is everything wrong with her life.

\---

6\. Idiot

"I-I'm sorry, big sis told me I can't be around you anymore."

Shahin's mother died giving birth to him, so he grew up in Shohreh's arms. 

Khalid once asked him what he wanted to be, and he said that he wanted to be king, apparently having forgotten that he was speaking to the _crown prince_. When asked why, he answered, "because Shohreh said so."

"Come on now, Shahin, we have to practice your speech."

"Okay, big sis."

Shahin is the youngest, but Khalid suspects that even when he grows older, he won't know a world beyond his sister's puppet strings.

\---  
\---

1\. King

The autumn after his twenty-fourth birthday, Khalid comes home victorious to take the throne, and what comes after that is almost laughably easy. 

It takes two weeks for Rahim and Mozhdeh to attempt a coup, one week to blackmail Safa and Rushan into supporting him, another week to find evidence that Shahin and Shohreh are planning a separate assassination attempt. 

"Who taught you to treat your own flesh and blood like this," they all cried, when he cornered them.

" _You_ ," he answered. "I learned this from _you_ , my dear brothers and sisters!"

.

.

.

.

.

.

King Khalid al-Azhdar of Almyra has zero siblings. 

**Author's Note:**

> For reference, in case some of these weren't clear:  
> -Ages are Shohreh > Safa=Rushan > Rahim > Mozhdeh=Khalid > Shahin  
> -Rahim's mother is from House Mardikh, the most powerful house, and that's part of why he's so confident; if Khalid is gone, he's the next most likely candidate for the crown  
> -Shohreh and Shahin have the same mother  
> -Shohreh, Safa, and Rushan all decide to join their mothers' clans instead of trying to take the throne, but Shohreh wants to make Shahin the king and control him behind the scenes  
> -Safa and Rushan are in an incestuous relationship, Khalid uses this to blackmail them into helping him (and then he later kills them anyway)  
> -Mozhdeh isn't very likely to take the crown, but she hates Khalid enough to help Rahim when he attempts a coup
> 
> Also the royal family+five grand clans are named after Persian mythical creatures:  
> -Azhdar = Azhdaha  
> -Mardikh = Manticore  
> -Bahmut = Bahamut  
> -Samaran = Shahmaran  
> -Kargdan = Karkadann  
> -Zimourv = Simurgh
> 
> They all have their own signature battalions, with Immortal Corps (flying archers) for Azhdar, Man Eaters (armored cavalry, like the cataphracts) for Mardikh, Tide Beasts (battleships) for Bahmut, Fire Snakes (combat medics) for Samaran, Dread Horns (war elephants) for Kargdan, and Prism Wings (flying mages) for Simurgh. 
> 
> Yeah I really had fun coming up with all this shit lol
> 
> [My twitter](https://twitter.com/slotumn?s=09)  
> 


End file.
